Atomic Fock state preparation using Rydberg blockade

Phys Rev Lett. 2014 Jan 31;112(4):043602. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.043602. Epub 2014 Jan 30.

Abstract

We use coherent excitation of 3-16 atom ensembles to demonstrate collective Rabi flopping mediated by Rydberg blockade. Using calibrated atom number measurements, we quantitatively confirm the expected √N Rabi frequency enhancement to within 4%. The resulting atom number distributions are consistent with an essentially perfect blockade. We then use collective Rabi π pulses to produce N=1, 2 atom number Fock states with fidelities of 62% and 48%, respectively. The N=2 Fock state shows the collective Rabi frequency enhancement without corruption from atom number fluctuations.